Dave Arneson
Dave Arneson | |
---|---|
Born | David Lance Arneson October 1, 1947[1][2] Hennepin County, Minnesota, U.S. |
Died | April 7, 2009 Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. | (aged 61)
Occupation | Game designer |
Nationality | American |
Genre | Role-playing games |
Spouse |
Frankie Ann Morneau (m. 1984) |
Children | 1 |
David Lance Arneson (
Arneson discovered wargaming as a teenager in the 1960s, and he began combining these games with the concept of
Arneson moved to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to work for TSR in 1976, but left before the end of the year. In 1979 Arneson filed suit to retain credits and royalties on the game. He continued to work as an independent game designer, including work submitted to TSR in the 1980s, and continued to play games for his entire life. Arneson also did some work in computer programming, and he taught computer game design and game rules design at Full Sail University from the 1990s until shortly before his death in 2009.
Experience with miniature wargaming
Arneson's role-playing game design work grew from his interest in
In the late 1960s
In 1969 Arneson was a history student attending the University of Minnesota and working part-time as a security guard.[12] He attended the second Gen Con gaming convention in August 1969 (at which time wargaming was still the primary focus) and it was at this event that he met Gary Gygax,[13][14] who had founded the Castle & Crusade Society within the International Federation of Wargamers in the 1960s at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.[5][12] Arneson and Gygax also shared an interest in sailing ship games and they co-authored the Don't Give Up the Ship naval battle rules, serialized from June 1971 and later published as a single volume in 1972 by Guidon Games with a revised edition by TSR, Inc. in 1975.[12][15]
Blackmoor
Following the departure of David Wesely to service in the Army Reserves in October 1970, Arneson and his fellow players in the
I had spent the previous two days watching about five monster movies on channel 5's 'Creature Feature' weekend, reading several Conan books (I cannot recall which ones, but I always thought they were all pretty much the same), and stuffing myself with popcorn, doodling on a piece of graph paper. At the time, I was quite tired of my Nappy (Napoleonic) campaign with all its rigid rules and was rebelling against it.
Arneson drew heavily upon the fantasy material in the
Many of the fantasy medieval foundations of D&D, as well as the concept of adventuring in "dungeons"[23] originated with Blackmoor, which also incorporated time travel and science fiction elements. These are visible much later in the DA module series published by TSR (particularly City of the Gods), but were also present from the early to mid-1970s in the original campaign and parallel and intertwined games run by John Snider, whose ruleset developed from these adventures and was intended for publication by TSR from 1974 as the first science fiction RPG.[24][25] Arneson described Blackmoor as "roleplaying in a non-traditional medieval setting. I have such things as steam power, gunpowder, and submarines in limited numbers. There was even a tank running around for a while. The emphasis is on the story and the roleplaying."[20] Details of Blackmoor and the original campaign, established on the map of the Castle & Crusade Society's "Great Kingdom",[26] were first brought to print briefly in issue #13 of the Domesday Book, the newsletter of the Castle & Crusade Society in July 1972, and later in much-expanded form as The First Fantasy Campaign, published by Judges Guild in 1977.[27]
In November 1972, Dave Arneson and
Gary, myself and a few other local wargamers were the first "lucky" fellows from Lake Geneva to experience the rigors of Blackmoor. This idea caught on deeply with Gary after an exciting adventure in which our party of heroes fought a troll, were fireballed by a magic-user, then fled to the outdoors (being chased by the Magic-user and his minions), fought four (gulp!) Balrogs, followed a map to sixteen ogres and destroyed them with a wish from a sword we had procured from the hapless troll earlier.
Dungeons & Dragons
After playing in the Blackmoor game Arneson refereed, Gygax almost immediately began a similar campaign of his own, which he called "Greyhawk", and asked Arneson for a draft of his playing-rules.[12] The two then collaborated by phone and mail, and playtesting was carried out by their various groups and other contacts. Gygax and Arneson wanted to have the game published, but Guidon Games and Avalon Hill rejected it. Arneson could not afford to invest in the venture.[9][17][30]
Gygax felt that there was a need to publish the game as soon as possible, since similar projects were being planned elsewhere, so rules were hastily put together, and Arneson's own final draft was never used.
Arneson formally joined TSR as their Director of Research at the beginning of 1976, but left at the end of the year to pursue a career as an independent game-designer.[16][31][32]
After TSR
In 1977, despite the fact that he was no longer at TSR, Arneson published Dungeonmaster's Index,[33] a 38-page booklet that indexed all of TSR's D&D properties to that point in time.
TSR had agreed to pay Arneson royalties on all D&D products, but when the company came out with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) in 1977, it claimed that AD&D was a significantly different product and so did not pay him royalties for it.[34] In response, Arneson filed the first of five lawsuits against Gygax and TSR in 1979.[35] In March 1981, as part of a confidential agreement, Arneson and Gygax resolved the suits out of court by agreeing that they would both be credited as "co-creators" on the packaging of D&D products from that point on,[12] and Arneson would receive a 2.5% royalty on all AD&D products. This provided him with a comfortable six-figure annual income for the next twenty years.[36]: 139 This did not end the lingering tensions between them.[5]
Continuation of Blackmoor
Arneson wrote a new version of the Blackmoor setting for publication by Judges Guild in The First Fantasy Campaign (1977).[11]: 39 In 1979 Arneson and Richard L. Snider, an original Blackmoor player, co-authored Adventures in Fantasy, a role-playing game that attempted to recapture the "original spirit of the Role Playing Fantasy Game" that Arneson had envisioned in the early 1970s, instead of what D&D had become.[37] In the early 1980s he established his own game company, Adventure Games – staffed largely by Arneson's friends, most of whom were involved in an American Civil War reenactment group – that published the miniatures games Harpoon (1981) and Johnny Reb (1983), as well as a new edition of his own Adventures in Fantasy role-playing game (1981).[11]: 39 [20] The company also published several Tékumel related books, owing to Arneson's friendship with author M. A. R. Barker.[11]: 39 Adventure Games was profitable, but Arneson found the workload to be excessive and finally sold the company to Flying Buffalo.[38] Arneson sold the rights to Adventure Games to Flying Buffalo in 1985; because Arneson owned part of Flying Buffalo, he wanted to let them handle the rest of his company's stock and intellectual property after shutting down Adventure Games.[11]: 39
While Gary Gygax was president of TSR in the mid-1980s, he and Arneson reconnected, and Arneson briefly relinked Blackmoor to D&D[5] with the "DA" (Dave Arneson) series of modules set in Blackmoor (1986–1987). The four modules in the series, three of which were written by Arneson, detailed Arneson's campaign setting for the first time.[20] When Gygax was forced out of TSR, Arneson's projects were dropped from the company before a planned fifth module could be published. Gygax and Arneson again went their separate ways.[5] In 1986 Arneson wrote a new D&D module set in Blackmoor called "The Garbage Pits of Despair", which was published in two parts in Different Worlds magazine issues #42 and #43.[11]: 84
Arneson and Dustin Clingman founded Zeitgeist Games to produce an updated d20 System version of the Blackmoor setting.[5] Goodman Games published and distributed Dave Arneson's Blackmoor in 2004, and Goodman published additional products for Blackmoor over the next year.[11]: 387 Code Monkey Publishing released Dave Arneson's Blackmoor: The First Campaign (2009) for 4th edition D&D.[11]: 388
Computer programming and education
In 1988, Arneson stated his belief that RPGs, whether paper or computer, were still "hack and slash" and did not teach novices how to play, and that games like
Living in California in the late 1980s, Arneson had a chance to work with special education children. Upon returning to Minnesota, he pursued teaching and began speaking at schools about educational uses of role-playing and using multi-sided dice to teach math.[44]
In the 1990s, he began working at Full Sail, a private university that teaches multimedia subjects,[5] and continued there as an instructor of computer game design until 2008.[45] At Full Sail University he taught the class "Rules of the Game",[12] a class in which students learned how to accurately document and create rule sets for games that were balanced between mental challenges for the players and "physical" ones for the characters.[46] He retired from the position on June 19, 2008.[45]
Other RPG involvements
Arneson continued to play games his entire life, including D&D and military miniature games, and regularly attended an annual meeting to play the original Blackmoor in Minnesota.[5]
Arneson wrote for Computer Gaming World magazine in the 1980s and early 1990s. He wrote columns on his opinion of the role-playing game genre[39] and reviews of computer games such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1985),[47] Zork Zero (1988),[48] Citadel: Adventure of the Crystal Keep (1989),[49] Uncharted Waters (1990),[50] and Renegade Legion: Interceptor (1990).[51]
During the 1990s, he was invited to Brazil by Devir, a game publisher. He became friends with the owner of the publishing company and he gave him his D&D woodgrain box and some of his books as a gift.[52]
In 1997, after Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR, Peter Adkison paid Arneson an undisclosed sum to free up D&D from royalties that were still owed to Arneson; this allowed Wizards to retitle Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to simply Dungeons & Dragons.[11]: 282 [34]
Around 2000, Arneson was working with
Personal life
Arneson married Frankie Ann Morneau in 1984;[53] they had one daughter,[2] Malia, and two grandchildren.[44]
Arneson died on April 7, 2009,[54][55] after battling cancer for two years.[14] According to his daughter, Malia Weinhagen, "The biggest thing about my dad's world is he wanted people to have fun in life."[44]
Honors and tributes
Arneson received numerous industry awards for his part in creating Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games. In 1984 he was inducted into the
Three days after his death,
Turbine's
On October 30, 2010, Full Sail University dedicated the student game development studio space as "Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Studios" in Arneson's honor.[65]
Since the release of the history of Braunstein in 2008[66] and Playing at the World in 2012,[67] a scholarly work by Jon Petersen, the role of Dave Wesely and Dave Arneson was restored in the broad conversation on the origins of the tabletop role-playing games. Robert Kuntz published Dave Arneson's True Genius in 2017[68] and gave interviews to Kotaku to detail how the gameplay of the current tabletop role-playing games was designed by Arneson.[69][70] In 2019, the documentary The Secrets of Blackmoor presented interviews of the first players of Dave Arneson and acknowledged his innovations.[71]
Partial bibliography
Source: "Dave Arneson Product Listing". RPGNet. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
- Don't Give Up the Ship! (1972) (with Gary Gygax and Mike Carr)
- Dungeons & Dragons (1974) (with Gary Gygax)
- Blackmoor (1975)
- Dungeonmaster's Index (1977)
- The First Fantasy Campaign (1977)
- Adventures in Fantasy (1979) (with Richard L. Snider)
- Robert Asprin's Thieves' World (1981) (co-author)
- Citybook II – Port o' Call(1984) (co-author)
- Adventures in Blackmoor (D&D Module:DA1) (1986) (with David J. Ritchie)
- Temple of the Frog (D&D Module:DA2) (1986) (with David J. Ritchie)
- City of the Gods (D&D Module:DA3) (1987) (with David J. Ritchie)
- DNA/DOA (Shadowrunmodule 1) (1989)
- The Case of the Pacific Clipper (1991)
- The Haunted Lighthouse (Dungeon Crawl Classics Module #3.5) (2003)
- Dave Arneson's Blackmoor (2004) (lead designer)
- Player's Guide to Blackmoor (2006)
References
- ^ "United States Social Security Death Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JTVK-MZN : accessed February 12, 2013), David Lance Arneson, April 7, 2009; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- ^ a b Minnesota Department of Health. Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004.
- ^ Cook, Monte; Tweet, Jonathan; Williams, Skip (2000). Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast. p. 2.
Based on the original Dungeons & Dragons rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson
- ^ Lafarge, Paul (September 2006). "Destroy All Monsters: A journey deep into the cavern of Dungeons & Dragons, a utopian, profoundly dorky and influential game that, lacking clear winners or an end, may not be a game at all". The Believer. 4 (7). Archived from the original on September 20, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Dave Arneson Interview". August 19, 2004. Retrieved January 31, 2007.
- ^ ISBN 0-9674429-0-7.
- ^ a b c "Dave Arneson Interview". August 11, 2002. Archived from the original on June 22, 2006. Retrieved January 31, 2007.
- ISBN 0-7864-0895-2.
- ^ a b c Arneson, Dave (June–July 1979). "My Life and Role-Playing". Different Worlds (3). Chaosium: 6–8.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7864-5895-0
- ^ ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kushner, David (March 10, 2008). "Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax". Wired.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
- ^ Arneson, D.; Gygax, G.; Carr, M. (1972). Don't Give Up the Ship (1st ed.). Evansville, IN: Guidon Games. pp. ii.
- ^ a b "Role-playing games pioneer dies". April 11, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2020 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
- International Federation of Wargamers.
- ^ a b Anon. (April–May 1981). "An Interview with Dave Arneson". Pegasus (1). Judges Guild: 4. Archived from the original on March 21, 2009.
- ^ a b c "Dungeons & Dragons FAQ". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on October 2, 2008. Retrieved October 3, 2008.
- ^ "The History of TSR". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on September 24, 2008. Retrieved September 20, 2005.
- ^ a b Kelly, Kent David (2015). Hawk and Moore: The Unofficial History of Dungeons & Dragons. Wonderland Imprints.
- ^ a b c d e f Varney, Allen (July 1998). "Profiles: Dave Arneson". Dragon (#249). Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast: 120.
- ^ Handy, Alex (April 10, 2009). "Dungeons & Dragons' Arneson: The Lost Interview". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
- ^ Anon. (August 1999). "Pegasus chats with ... Dave Arneson". Pegasus (14). Judges Guild: 6. Archived from the original on April 12, 2009.
- ^ Gygax, Gary (June 1978). "D&D Ground and Spell Area Scale". Dragon Magazine (15). TSR, Inc.: 13.
- The Strategic Review. 1 (3). TSR, Inc.: 6.
- Lew Pulsipher.
- ^ Gygax, Gary (June 1977). "Gary Gygax on Dungeons & Dragons: Origins of the Game". Dragon Magazine. 1 (7). TSR, Inc.: 7.
- ^ Arneson, Dave (July 1972). "Facts about Black Moor". Domesday Book (13). Castle & Crusade Society: 6–7.
- ^ "Lake Geneva Gaming Group? | Original D&D Discussion". odd74.proboards.com. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
Dave Arneson was the judge, and the other players were: EGG, Terry Kuntz, Ernie Gygax and myself. Megarry was the de facto leader as he understood the campaign area and rules and so he was our overall integration point in the adventure which took place on EGG's dining table.
- ^ Peterson, Jon (2012). "1.10. Blackmoor". Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games (2nd ed.). Unreason Press.
- ^ Gygax, Gary (June 1979). "D&D, AD&D and Gaming". Dragon Magazine (28–29). TSR: 7.
- The Strategic Review. 2 (1). TSR, Inc.: 2.
- ^ "Remembering Dave – Black Gate". October 2013.
- ^ "Dungeonmaster's Index". Tome of treasures for Dungeons & Dragons Collectibles. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 0-7869-3498-0.
- ^ Arneson v. Gygax, United States District Court, D. Minnesota, Fourth Division, vol. 473, 1979, p. 759
- ISBN 978-1-63286-279-2.
- ^ Arneson, David L.; Snider, Richard (1979). Adventures in Fantasy: Book of Adventure. Excalibre Games Inc./Adventures Unlimited. p. 1.
- ^ Sacco, Ciro Allessandro. "An Interview with Dave Arneson". Archived from the original on July 7, 2004. Retrieved June 3, 2009. (Alternative URL: [1].)
- ^ a b Arneson, David L. (May 1988). "The Future of Computer Role-Playing". Computer Gaming World. p. 24.
- ^ "Business Filing Details".
- ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
- White Wolf Magazine. No. 20. p. 51.
- Games International. No. 14. pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b c Forliti, Amy (April 10, 2009). "Arneson, co-creator of D&D, dies at 61". Associated Press. Retrieved May 31, 2010.
- ^ The Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the originalon June 21, 2008. Retrieved May 31, 2010.
- ^ "Interview with Dave Arneson". Kobold Quarterly. Archived from the original on April 30, 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2010.
- ^ Dave Arneson (September 1988). "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Computer Gaming World. No. 51. pp. 12–13, 31, 34.
- ^ Arneson, Dave (January 1989). "When Is A Zero Not A Zero?". Computer Gaming World. pp. 24–25.
- ^ Arneson, Dave (January 1991). "A Crystal-Clear Look at Citadel / Adventure on the Macintosh". Computer Gaming World. No. 78. p. 70. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
- ^ Arneson, Dave (May 1992). "I Must Go down to the Sea, Again: Koei's Uncharted Waters". Computer Gaming World. Vol. 1, no. 94. pp. 40, 42.
- ^ Arneson, Dave (February 1991). "Beyond the Dark Night and Into the Starry Sky". Computer Gaming World. Vol. 1, no. 79. pp. 18–19, 92.
- ^ "Dave Arneson's Personal Woodgrain D&D set". Wayne's Books. January 13, 2018. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
- ^ Ancestry.com. Minnesota Marriage Collection, 1958–2001 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007.
- ^ "Dave Arneson". News. Wizards of the Coast. April 9, 2009. Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
- ^ Maliszewski, James (April 8, 2009). "Sadly, This is Accurate". Grognardia. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
- ^ "List of Winners". Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved January 31, 2007.
- ^ Haring, Scott D. (December 24, 1999). "Second Sight: The Millennium's Best "Other" Game and The Millennium's Most Influential Person". Pyramid (Online). Retrieved February 15, 2008.
- ^ "Poker Deck". Flying Buffalo. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
- ^ "David Lance Arneson". wizards.com. Wizards of the Coast. April 10, 2009. Archived from the original on March 29, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2009. The image originally appeared here "DnD Welcome". Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2009..
- Giantitp. Archivedfrom the original on April 11, 2009.
- ^ Kovalic, John (April 8, 2009). "Dork Tower April 8, 2009". Dork Tower. Dork Storm Press. Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
- ^ "World of Warcraft Patch Notes 3.10". Blizzard Entertainment. Archived from the original on May 7, 2010. Retrieved April 14, 2009.
- ^ "DDO Release Notes: Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited". Retrieved January 19, 2011.
- ^ "Mantle of the Worldshaper". Archived from the original on November 11, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
- ^ "Blackmoor Studios Opens on Campus". Retrieved December 20, 2014.
- ^ Robbins, Ben (2008). "Braunstein: the Roots of Roleplaying Games". ars ludi. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
- .
- ^ Kuntz, Robert J. (2017). Dave Arneson's True Genius. Scottsdale, AZ: Three Line Studio.
- ^ D'Anastasio, Cecilia (August 26, 2019). "Dungeons & Deceptions: The First D&D Players Push Back On The Legend Of Gary Gygax". Kotaku. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ D'Anastasio, Cecilia (November 3, 2019). "Fantasy's Widow: The Fight Over The Legacy Of Dungeons & Dragons". Kotaku. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
- ^ Graves, Chris, Griffith Mon Morgan III, Ryan Swan (May 8, 2019). Secrets of Blackmoor: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons (Documentary). Fellowship of the Thing.
External links
- Official website of Dave Arneson.
- "Dave Arneson Interview" by Harold Foundary at Digital Entertainment News.
- "Dave Arneson Interview" by Andrew S. Bub at GameSpy, August 11, 2002.
- "Slice of SciFi #151: Interview with "Dungeons & Dragons" co-creator Dave Arneson" by Farpoint Media, February 8, 2008.
- Jeremy L.C. Jones. "If Their Hearts Are Pure: A Conversation with Dave Arneson", Kobold Quarterly no.9, 2009-04-11. Retrieved on 2009-05-03. Arneson's last known interview.
- "Dave Arneson :: Pen & Paper RPG Database". Archived from the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved January 30, 2018.